EP 1 953 012 A2 describes a ball joint formed of a ball of a ball pin fitted into a thin-walled sliding shell in an articulated manner, wherein the end of the strut body and the sliding shell together have a plastic covering injection molded at least partially around them, the covering forming the connection between the strut body and the thin-walled sliding shell.
In the wheel suspension of a vehicle, such a ball joint can be used for connecting a stabilizer to a compression strut, this connection usually being formed by a shackle or clamping strip attached by welding or by interlocking or frictional means to a damper tube of the compression strut. With a welded joint between the compression strut and the ball joint the welding process has to be carried out very precisely (the damper tube and the shackle are components with different thicknesses). Furthermore, the welding process can result in warping of the damper tube. Moreover, already with small production runs the investment costs are high. Finally, this arrangement for connecting the stabilizer is relatively bulky when it must be ensured that large forces can be transmitted. If the compression strut is connected to the ball joint by clamping means, the interlock or frictional connection in the tension and compression directions cannot be realized with the same quality so that, particularly with large forces, that type of connection cannot be used.
A connecting arrangement of the type mentioned to begin with is known from DE 10 2005 016 933 A1. In this case the fastening hole is formed by a funnel in combination with a fixing thread. The joint is in the form of a ball joint which can rest axially against an end face of the funnel. In addition, a stabilizer can be connected to the spring plate by means of the joint.
The disadvantage of such a connection system is that an internal thread has to be formed in the fastening hole, and an external thread on the fastening section of the joint. However, the formation of the threads, in particular the internal thread in the sheet metal of the spring plate, gives rise to high production costs and effort. Furthermore the sheet of the spring plate may be too thin for the formation of a load-bearing thread, so that there is a risk that under axial tensile forces the tear-out strength of the joint will be too low.